Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  Paul had just finished his run with Metsis and Lydia, spent an hour in the Jxansa Gha workout room with them, eaten his breakfast and cleaned-up for a day in the office. He entered to a smiling Inga informing him, “Jon Morgensson has tried to call you several times this morning. He told me it wasn’t urgent, and yet he’s called four times already.” Paul headed for his office as he told her, “Get him for me.” In a few minutes Paul was on the phone with Jon Morgensson, informing Paul, “The twins have something they want to discuss with you, Prince Marcus, Prince Michael and your brother Prince Kary. They would like to do it this morning, say in one hour, if you can get away from the office.” Paul’s first thought was not a pleasant one and blurted out, “Those boys aren’t about to make me a great-great-uncle are they?” Jon quickly replied, “God, I hope not, or at least not for another 10 years or so.” I know what it is but they are determined to keep it a surprise, so please don’t ask me, or I will cave instantly, ruining the surprise.” Paul was curious at this point and could think of nothing better than an excuse to get out of the office. He asked, “Where and what time? I think I can spare a little time from the office.” Jon instead replied, “I’ll meet you downstairs and ride with you. That way I can show you.” Paul was even more curious now. He arrived in the hanger bay and knew something was up, since his brother and two nephews were standing with Mr. Morgensson by one of the small transports. Without a word they climbed in and Paul took the controls. “Head for the south face of Mt. Alene and stop at about 60,000 feet and two miles out,” Jon instructed him.

  Upon reaching the designated stopping point, Jon further instructed him, “It would be best if you set the windshield magnification at 20x and look at the top of the mountain.” All four of the Verron’s moved forward for a better look through the window. As they watched, a transport landed on the peak of Mt. Alene. Two figures in dark gray body armor stepped from the ship. With the 20x magnification it was obvious to Paul, Marcus and Kary that the suits looked a bit different than a standard suit. Without hesitation the two figures took off at top speed for the edge of the 80,000 foot drop. They could have never made that run without the extra strength given by the armors exoskeleton. The winds were calmer than usual up top, but still were howling at well over 100 mph. With a final push, the two figures leaped from the top of Mt. Alene. Based on his initial observation of the changes in the suit, he assumed it was a base-jumping exhibition, but to his amazement, when the two jumpers were about 10,000 feet below the summit, a set of wings folded out of the back of the body armor and locked into position with a good 20 foot wingspan. The updraft was powerful and they both popped up no less than half the distance they had just fallen then they began to soar. In perfectly synchronized flight, the twins were gliding effortlessly above the valley below. As they drifted farther and farther away from the updraft coming off the valley their attitude gradually began to decrease. Then came the next shocker; at 20,000 feet the twins kicked on a built-in thruster and shot upwards at amazing speed to 40,000 feet again. With the thrusters turned off, they once again resumed soaring like Eagles above the tree tops and foothills. Paul wasn’t sure how long the girls had been flying through the air, until Jon exclaimed, “This is the record they told me they could reach. All our other flights have been in the northern range off of nothing higher than 40,000 feet. The currents up there on Alene are much stronger.” Paul looked at his watch and realized they had been following the twins for more than 3 hours of flying. When they landed they were over 400 miles from Mt. Alene.

  Paul was the first to exit the ship when it landed across a field from Fay and Kay Morgensson. Both had retracted their headgear and their wings. As he approached the girls, one of them, he could not tell which one, quickly pleaded, “Please don’t be mad at us for altering the suits the boys gave us. They gave them to us so we could go spelunking in the high-altitude caves. They don’t have all the military stuff on them, just the oxygen and night vision for the dark caves and we promised we would take care of them.” Paul held up his hand and smiled, saying, “Which ever one you are, please take a breath and relax. I am not mad at you; in fact I’m really impressed. Now tell me what you’ve done.” From behind her sister, the other one said, “I’m Kay – that’s Fay. What we did was get bored with Chase and Daniel gone and started thinking what we could do for a little excitement. With a father who is an aeronautical engineer and a future father-in-law who runs a Space Ship factory, we convinced them to make some modifications we designed for the suites.” Paul once again held up his hand and asked, “You mean you designed these things yourself?” This time Fay picked-up where her sister left off, saying, “Well, yeah! We couldn’t exactly build them ourselves in the garage and all, so we sweet-talked Dad and Marcus into letting us use the prototype shop. Of course Dad did the actual machining and fabricating and one of the propulsion engineers build the miniaturized thrusters. We’ve been working on them ever since the boys left and have been flying in them for a couple of weeks now up north to avoid snoopy eyes. So what do you think?”

  Paul, Kary and Michael walked closer to the girls and circled them slowly. Obviously Marcus had already seen them. Paul spoke first, asking, “Can you extend the wings so we can have a better look.” Kay held up her wrist to get a wind reading on the wrist mounted wind indicator. She replied, “It’s safe down here. Up top we can’t open them until we jump, there’s way too much wind.” The impressive wings unfurled rapidly, but didn’t just pop-out like a parachute. Fay informed them, “We can extend or retract them in flight. It comes in handy if you want to make a fast dive. We only recently mounted the thrusters and have pretty limited capacity, but if we use them only when we start losing altitude they will keep us aloft for a 1000 mile trip.” Kay continued, “We actually made it 1235 miles already.”

  Marcus and Paul continued to closely inspect the suits and finally Paul told the girls, “OK, I forgive you for altering my million dollar body armor, but I’m still a little bit upset.” He took a pause to see the expression on the girl’s faces before he continued, saying, “My only complaint is that I don’t have one.” Paul had never seen two more beautiful girls, when they smiled the whole world around them lit-up. They both spoke together excitedly and gave him a hug, saying, “Marcus said you wouldn’t mind. We took one of your suits and one of Prince Kary’s. They’re in the shuttle, want to see?” Suddenly Paul and Kary Verron were like two little boys on Christmas morning. In record time they were suited-up and asking the girls for instructions on how to use the suits. Paul was first to say, “You girls have enough juice in your thrusters for another run?” Kay smiled saying, “Already ahead of you.” Kary grinned and said, “Let’s do it!” The twins both replied, “Where would you like to try them?” Paul pointed up to where they had come from and saw the worried look on their face. He told them, “Hey, if I have farther to drop, then I have more time to figure out what I did wrong and maybe correct it.” Marcus and Michael looked at the two brothers and asked, “Is Hunter prepared to take over this soon?” As Paul walked toward the shuttle, he told them, “If I know him, he’ll be the next one up to do this.” The girls continued to instruct the King and his brother for the entire ride to the top of Mt. Alene. They were still talking when the deranged brothers raced each other for the drop-off as soon as the tailgate opened. Kay and Fay looked at each other, shook their heads and raced after them.

  King Verron never made it into the office that day, or the next. He left a message for Inga that he was in the middle of weapons testing with Prince Kary and to handle whatever came up. Paul, Kary, Kay and Fay managed 1512 miles the following day. Before they finished, the four of them were doing aerobatics like a stunt-pilot. Paul and Kary were already making plans to have the designers build a miniaturized reactor, thrusters, anti-gravity and onboard weapons. He was so impressed with the twins he was about to do an arranged marriage between them and his nephews, their Grandpa was in total agreement. King Verron couldn’t wait to issue suits to the Dragon
Guard. If they worked as planned, there would be an entire unit of Marines wearing them before long.

  When Paul finally decided to make it to the office, he was welcomed by Pavel, Ilna, Cali, Camil and Hon IV. They had already raided the small fridge in his office and were checking out the photos of the Restoration. It looked almost new and most of the hard work had been done by the women who lived there. Some of the girls were already taking up residence on the surface. Those still onboard had their own individual apartment, more like a dorm room, and had been assigned to some duty on the ship. On most evenings the place looked like the lobby of a women’s boarding house. Men from the surface were there to court their favorite girl. They had managed to convert one of the larger rooms into a theater and one of the dining rooms had been compartmentalized to allow cozy diners to have some privacy. Almost all the girls were taking advantage of the workout rooms that had been set-up in several locations. Evidently several of the ladies had an eye for color. The halls and dining rooms and their individual rooms were the first to receive fresh paint and even some wallpaper. Hon smiled as he commented, “First time I’ve seen a spaceship looking like a designer showcase. Next you’ll have flowers growing in the windows.” Paul flipped over the photos until he found what he was looking for, grow lights were adorning one wall of the main dining hall; there was a wide variety of flowers in planters along the wall. Hon smiled and shook his head, Paul told him, “This is the first home they have known. We try to allow them as much freedom to be who they are as possible.” Camil spoke-up and commented, “Those Klelta ships of yours smell like an old sock inside. Do you ever clean them?” Hon was about to get defensive, then stopped. Shook his head and replied, “Uh, not that I know of. I guess I should look into that.”

  Before Paul could sit-down in his chair Cali asked, “Alright, we’re back. When do we get ours?” Paul really had no idea what she was talking about, and asked, “Get what? I should have a new assignment for you in a week or two, meanwhile just relax and enjoy yourself for a while, you deserve it. By the way how did the ribbon cutting go?” Camil jumped right in and said, “Pretty clever changing the subject and all, but we will not be deterred. We want our own suit. Now when do we get ours?” Paul smiled as he shouted, “Inga, is nothing confidential in my office?” Instead of Inga, Paul got a response from Lucy, saying, “I forwarded them a complete audio and video download of your flights. I also provided overhead images of the four of you flying. I always have half a dozen drones tracking you when you’re on the planet. Would you like to see the video, sir?” Paul shook his head, and replied, “Well, I guess since half of Verron has already seen it, I may as well have a look.” Lucy sounded offended when she answered, “Half of Verron has no idea what goes on around here, but I keep nothing from the Dragon Guard, they have all seen it. I have already forwarded your request for additional suits to Prince Kary and Prince Marcus. I have also added a design for a micro-missile, wrist mounted laser-blaster and a shoulder mounted 5mm plasma gun, the micro-processors required to operate the miniaturized reactors, antigravity and thrusters should be finished by the time the first of the new suits are ready, in about four more days.” Paul sat down and looked at members of the Dragon Guard, then asked, “Lucy, uh, do I get one of the new suits or do I still have to use the old one?” Her reply came back, “The old one, sir, but I have already taken the liberty to remove it from your quarters and deliver it for upgrades. I hope that meets your approval.” Paul looked around the room at his friends and answered, “Everything you do meets my approval Lucy, that’s why I love you so much.” Everyone got a chuckle when Lucy came back with, “I would say that I bet you say that to all the girls, but since I never see with any, I trust you only say it to me.” Lucy was gone after that. Paul mumbled, “I think she’s been talking to my mother.”

  It took five days, but it was worth the wait. The new suits had thrusters sufficient to launch them from the planet surface at any elevation. Paul could literally step out his bedroom door and blast-off for a flight. The thrusters would quickly push him to an altitude of 20 to 30 thousand feet. From there he could silently glide for hours, only using his thrusters to lift him back to his desired altitude. The other five Dragon Guard and the twins were now flying together. They were attempting to stay away from the populated areas and the prying eyes of tourists, but reports were spreading that the King and his Dragon Guard could fly – without a spaceship. Fortunately, no one had pictures of them, so it was treated like a rumor and nothing more. By the third day of practicing in their suits, Finley and Burka joined them. They could only reach an altitude of 15,000 feet since the air was beginning to become too thin to breath. On day five, Fay and Kay arrived with small oxygen bottles and custom made masks for the happy couple. Soon they were soaring with the rest of them. Then on day seven Zeus had to arrive and show-off. He could fly faster, higher and make maneuvers the others could only dream of. Paul figured the old boy had five or six thousand years of practice, he better be good. Paul was already preparing suits for the others in the Guard. They weren’t scheduled to come home anytime in the immediate future, but would be upset if they stopped in and could not join their friends in flight. Kary and Paul invited General Zarman along on a flight. Kary had prepared a suit just for him. The normally serious and somewhat somber General was reluctant to try it on and test it in flight, but once the pilot of over fifty years was flying at over 200 mph without a plane, he was as giddy as a girl at a slumber party. The man flew home to see his wife and his son, Colonel David Zarman. Paul knew that a division of flying Marines would soon be added to the Verron Marines.

  Chapter 22

  Elena Myers had been racing since she was off of training wheels, she may have even been doing it while still on training wheel; the girl was born to race. At eight years-old no one took her seriously, she was just a cute blond California girl who had pretty leathers and a motorcycle. Then a strange thing happened, she began to win races, not just girl races, there were no girl races. By eleven Elena was beating the boys and adults, now in her early 30’s, she had an impressive resume: First girl to win an AMA Professional Race, first woman to win any kind of race at Daytona, first woman to race AMA Superbike, First woman to own her own motorcycle racing team, first woman to podium in both AMA and FIM Superbike and consistently rank in the top five Superbike racers season after season, but what had eluded her was that National Championship Title. She had a second and a third overall for two different seasons, but always fell a little short of the points to win a championship. This was going to be her year. Since meeting Tala Verron, for the first time in her racing career she did not have to spend her entire off season trying to find the funding and the sponsors needed to stay competitive. Some of her competition had full factory sponsorship or big-buck corporate support. As promised by Tala and her Uncle, a semi arrived in California complete with a fully equipped service/maintenance shop, enough tires for half the season and four brand-new BMW 1000RR’s prepared and built by Alpha Racing. Paul Verron had even arranged to have two German mechanics from Alpha Racing as part of the team. Neil Hodgson showed-up a few days later to set up some off-season riding and to make certain Elena had everything she needed to prepare for the upcoming season. She was so relieved; for once she could focus on physical conditioning and mental conditioning. Her greatest weakness had always been physical strength. A petite woman, no matter what kind of shape she was in, was not as physically strong as a well-conditioned male.

  Elena had gotten up on this day ready to challenge the world. At least three times a week she would go for mountain bike rides in the nearby foothills. There were several other motorcycle racers and a couple of professional mountain bike racers who usually joined the training. On this day, Elena was trouncing the competition. She felt the best she had felt in years, when suddenly she hit the smooth round six-inch rock in the middle of the turn on a downhill grade of 20%. Even before she hit the ground, Elena knew her season was over. She woke in the emergency room with
a cracked cheek-bone, broken nose, two black-eyes, a broken collar bone and a broken wrist. Her right knee was shredded from the rocks and would require surgery. She had just had a visit from a very good plastic surgeon who believed he could repair the damage to her face and leave very little scarring. The Daytona opening race was in four weeks. She was lying in her bed trying in vain to hold back her tears. Everything was going so well, this was going to be her big year. Now it had all come to a crashing halt from a stupid bicycle wreck.

  When she opened her puffy eyes, she looked up to see the kind face of Neil Hodgson and Tala Verron. She really didn’t want to open her mouth to speak. Her lips were split and puffy and two of her teeth had been knocked-out. She mostly mumbled, saying, “Well, it looks like you’ll need to find another rider. I can still help manage with Neil, but I believe my racing days are through, at least for this season, maybe forever. I feel like such a fool. I’m sorry.” She then began to cry once again. Tala reached down to give her a hug and whispered, “Have you ever heard of Verron, the place where I live?” Elena shook her head yes. Tala continued, “If you’ll trust me, I’m going to take you with me to see one of our doctors.” Elena attempted to laugh, but it hurt too much. She mumbled, “Look at me, I can’t go anywhere.” Tala looked over her shoulder at Neil, she had already discussed her plans with him, then asked, “You got me covered when they come looking for her?” Neil told her he did. Tala turned back to Elena, and without warning, her body began to levitate off the bed. Tala knew that would be less painful than a wheelchair or her trying to pick her up. As soon as Elena was well away from the bed, Tala made a gateway directly to the J. Verron Medical Center. Elena looked terrified. She knew Tala was different, and she knew strange things happened on Verron, but she never expected anything like this.